Supreme Court orders BSP supremo Mayawati to reimburse money spent on Elephant statues, party on backfoot

In a major setback to the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, the Supreme Court has asked the leader to reimburse the money spent on the Elephant statues across the Uttar Pradesh.

During 2007-2012, Mayawati had built several parks like Ambedkar Park in Lucknow, Dalit Prena Park in Noida etc. where statues of Elephants were built, along with Dalit leaders like Kanshi Ram, B.R Ambedkar, even Mayawati herself as well.

The apex court was hearing a petition filed by a lawyer wherein he had said in the petition that public money cannot be spent on the construction of statues of own and the party leaders.

A bench headed by Ranjan Gogoi observed, “We are of the tentative view that Mayawati has to deposit the public money spent on her statues and party symbol to the state exchequer.”

News agency ANI tweeted, “Supreme Court says prima facie BSP leader Mayawati has to pay back all the public money spent on statues while hearing a plea seeking direction to restrain her from spending public money on building statues. CJI Ranjan Gogoi says it would hear the plea on April 2.”

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